Spain begins to tighten up on “open arms” migration policy

Signs of EU pressure being brought to bear as the latest refugees are denied special privileges

The issue of migration, immigration and refugees has been very much in the spotlight in recent months since the abrupt change in the Spanish government in early May, with the “open arms” policy of Pedro Sánchez’s administration drawing applause from some quarters and scathing criticism from others.

While on the one hand thousands of migrants have been picked up in the Strait of Gibraltar and off the coast of Andalucía over the last three months before being interned in detention centres prior to probable deportation, on the other hand the government has opened up Spanish ports to rescue vessels picking up refugees off the coast of Libya in the central and eastern Mediterranean. The most widely publicized instance of this policy was in June, when 630 migrants on board the Aquarius were allowed to sail to Valencia and were then granted temporary residence permits lasting 45 days, during which time they could file their requests for asylum.

But now there are signs that the Spanish policy of welcoming those rescued on humanitarian grounds is beginning to change and tighten up, perhaps in response to guarded criticism from the EU. In an interview published in national newspaper recently Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European Commissioner for Migration, applauded Spain’s “positive” humanitarian gestures, but also warned that “things cannot continue this way”.

Thus, following the news that the Open Arms vessel is again to be allowed to reach port in Spain, this time in Algeciras, it has also been announced that the 87 migrants on board will not be afforded special privileges like those given to their predecessors. They will be taken to a “refugee camp” in the area and will then be treated in the same way as those who are picked up in the Strait of Gibraltar, the aim being to repatriate them where possible.

That is to say, they will remain in police custody for a maximum of 72 hours, during which time they can request asylum if they wish to.

It is worth pointing out that 84 of the 87 are from Sudan or South Sudan, an area in which armed conflict has escalated recently.

In some ways it was not hard to see this announcement coming, from the moment that the decision was made to direct the Open Arms to Algeciras, which is on the coast of the Strait of Gibraltar. For the rescue vessel that means a voyage of some three days, whereas it could have reached port in Barcelona or Valencia in under 24 hours, and as a result the migrants will have been on board the ship for a week when they finally reach land.

However, the government is not admitting a change of policy: Consuelo Rumí, the Secretary of State for Migration, explains that the Aquarius was a humanitarian emergency but that times are changing and new protocols for dealing with such cases are being established.

It is worth pointing out that this weekend Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is meeting his German counterpart Angela Merkel in Doñana, not far from Algeciras, and that although the meeting is officially an informal one the topic of the EU’s immigration policy is likely to be discussed. In late June the German Chancellor was under pressure from her parliamentary allies to tighten up on immigration, and was offered a lifeline by Sr Sánchez when he agreed to offer homes to refugees who had made their way to Germany via the Iberian Peninsula.

Image: some of those on board the Open Arms as it heads towards Algeciras